Bruce Lee in New Guinea (1978) Chinese tourist vaguely resembling Bruce Lee makes time with the local Snake Princess, ticking off a jealous kung fu magician. TIL: A 1991 study showed Christianity was the religion most successful at resolving cross-cultural conflicts.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of Night of the Lepus (1972) - "And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
King Dinosaur (1955) Zzzz. Not even fun enough to be crowned king of the real lizards with fins glued to them. TIL: In 1857 Philip Gosse popularized the idiot idea that dinosaur fossils were placed by God to test our faith. God IS truth, ergo He wouldn't punk the human race.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of Robot Holocaust (1986) - "The greatest height of heroism to which an individual, like a people, can attain is to know how to face ridicule." - Miguel de Unamuno
Konga (1961) Scientist supersizes she-ape to destroy his detractors. A blast If cheap chimp suits and store-bought Barbies are your idea of special effects. TIL: The Vatican’s Academy for Life notes that animal experiments should only be used in the absence of alternatives.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976) - "God has given you one face, and you make yourself another." - William Shakespeare
Killer’s Moon (1978) Schoolgirls break down near an asylum where inmates are secretly dosed with LSD. Blasé attitude towards rape ruins a decent setup. TIL: Human experimentation is not morally legitimate without the informed consent of the subject. The insane can't give that.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (1966) - “The rolling stone rolls echoing from rock to rock; but the rolling stone is dead. The moss is silent because the moss is alive.” - G.K. Chesterton
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) Traumatized tot grows up to punish the naughty while dressed as Santa. Controversial on release, but really just another slasher. TIL: Ben Franklin always said that a good conscience is a continual Christmas. The naughty should keep that in mind.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (1972) - "Christmas is a time when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ." - Bart Simpson
Family Plot (1976) Things get confusing when con-artist couples cross paths. Hitchcock's silly swan song disappoints on first viewing, but ages okay. TIL: Yes, many Catholic philosophers haver argued for "necessary lies." Honestly though, how many times are those really needed?
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of Slave of the Cannibal God (1978) - "Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, sickness and captivity would, without this comfort, be insupportable." - William Samuel Johnson
Here Comes the Devil (2012) Lost siblings reappear, but something isn't quite right. Decent possession flick muddled by too many Skinemax interludes. TIL: Pope Francis once pointed out that the devil seeks to destroy and eliminate families because that is where Jesus grows.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of Wonder Women (1973) - "“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” - G.K. Chesterton
And finally, Catholic Skywalker has made me consider doing something I didn’t think was possible… sitting through another Transformers movie. Here’s his take on the franchise’s latest, Bumblebee.
The Host (2006) Giant mutant fish thingy harasses the Han River district. Boasts Korea's patented abrupt tonal shifts, but they're all fun so it's no problem. TIL: Thanks to an over-abundance of martyrs, Korea actually has the fourth largest number of saints out of all nations.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of They Came from Beyond Space (1967) - "Let the poor man count as his enemy, and his worst enemy, every invader of the right of free discussion." - Gerrit Smith
The Entity (1982) Barbara Hershey elevates this surprisingly non-trashy tale of a woman repeatedly assaulted by an unseen spirit. Or is she? TIL: Rape is ALWAYS intrinsically evil as it wounds the respect, freedom, and physical and moral integrity to which everyone has a right.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of Them (1954) - "Go to the ant, O sluggard, study her ways and learn wisdom; For though she has no chief,no commander or ruler, She procures her food in the summer, stores up her provisions in the harvest." - Proverbs 6:6-8
And finally, over at Catholic World Report, Nick Olszyk has seen Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and thinks it just might be the best comic book movie ever. I wouldn’t go that far, but I also wouldn’t balk if it won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature this year, because it is.
The Keep (1983) Love it or hate it, there's no denying Michael Mann's fable of Nazis running afoul of an evil far older than themselves has style. TIL: Yep, the Nazis hated Jews, but they weren't fond of Papists either. Of 2,720 clergy imprisoned at Dachau, 2,579 were Catholic.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of The Man Who Laughs (1928) - “If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane.” - Robert Frost
The Hazing (2004) Costumed college pledge pals enjoy a scavenger hunt until Brad Dourif sics the evil dead on them. Sure, if nothing else is on. TIL: Taking an oath or pledge makes God a witness to what you are affirming. Probably not something to do frivolously.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of Scream Blacula Scream (1973) - "The purpose of any ceremony is to build stronger relationship or bridge the distance between our cosmos and us." Dr. Shawn Williams
Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962) Spacemen are menaced by an evil brain inside Uranus. Worth watching just to be able to type that sentence. TIL: Dom Placidus Fixlmillner was a monk and astronomer who computed the orbit of Uranus. Because, you know, the Church hates science.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of Videodrome (1983) - “However little television you watch, watch less.” - David McCullough
Enter the Ninja (1981) OG Django plays a ninja from Texas? Man, the Cannon catalog was ridiculous, but wow was it ever watchable. TIL: Among the 188 Japanese martyrs beatified on March 24, 2008, there are two possible members of the Hattori clan. So, just maybe... ninja Saints!
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of Idiocracy (2006) - "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." - Leonardo da Vinci
Invasion of the Star Creatures (1962) Really tall space ladies attack Earth with mutant vegetables. As if people needed another reason to be annoyed by Vegans. TIL: Vegetarian is actually perfectly moral as long as one's health isn't affected and it doesn't make one prideful.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of I've Lived Before (1956) - "Anybody who believes that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach flunked geography." - Robert Byrne
mother! (2017) Aronofsky delivers a misanthropic environmentalist screed with strong anti-religious overtones. Never have so many wrong ideas been executed so well. TIL: Pope B16 wrote that nature speaks to us of the Creator and his love for humanity. Guess Aronofsky missed that.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of The Ladies Club (1986) - "The fastest way to change society is to mobilize the women of the world." - Charles Malik
I Was a Teenage Serial Killer (1993) Underground classic has feminist fatale killing any man she finds sexist, misogynistic, or uncaring. Unsurprisingly, that's all of them. TIL: God designed the masculine and feminine to be complimentary, not adversarial. Some have forgotten.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) - "Without execution, 'vision' is just another word for hallucination." - Mark V. Hurd
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (1964) That's barely true. It's mostly some weaselly hypnotized dude. TIL: The morality of hypnosis depends on the freedom of the hypnotized, the morals of the hypnotist, and the intended purpose.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of The Boogey Man (1980) - "Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." - Carl Jung
Jaws of Satan (1981) Up to his old tricks, the devil appears as a large cobra to harass a priest. Good for a few unintentional laughs. TIL: Big on allegory, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich considered the Genesis serpent to be the embodiment of Adam & Eve's rebellious wills.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973) - "Both the cockroach and the bird would get along very well without us, although the cockroach would miss us most." - Joseph Wood Krutch
The Immortalizer (1989) Kooky codgers kidnap kids for life-extending brain transfer experiments. Wants to be Re-animator, ends up being mostly inanimate. TIL: Old age is a time for knowing and living more deeply the Paschal Mystery, not for being a murderous A-hole.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of Werewolf (1987) - "Don't allow your animal nature to rule your reason." - Rumi
Ironmaster (1983) Beefed-up barbarian invents iron weapons and starts the very first arms race with a guy wearing a lion's head. Not the worst Conan clone. TIL: The Catechism warns that the money spent on accumulation of arms must never impede efforts to aid needy populations.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of The Princess Bride (1987) - “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” - Helen Keller
I’m Not Jesus Mommy (2011) Is young David the holy clone of Jesus or something more sinister? Probably shouldn't have answered that in the movie's title. TIL: Cloning Jesus movies botch science and theology. The brain is not necessarily the mind. Neither one are the soul.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of Gandahar (1987) - "The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge." - Albert Einstein
Eraserhead (1977) Crazy coiffed clod tries to care for his mutant child in an industrial nightmare world. Utterly bizarre, yet oddly relatable. TIL: The father's role in the family is to reflect the image of God. Of course, it helps to know what that image is in the first place.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of The Time Travelers (1964) - "It is dangerous to exist in the world. To exist is to be threatened. We must live with threats." - Adam Levin
Holidays (2016) Eight short films about various holidays. Probably five or six too many. Heck, just getting rid of Kevin Smith's segment would double, maybe triple the quality. TIL: The liturgical calendar reminds us that all time belongs to God, not just Sunday mornings.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of The Mystery of the Green Spider (1960) - "Hair style is the final tip-off whether or not a woman really knows herself." - Hubert de Givenchy
Hobo with a Shotgun (2011) Homeless vigilante Rutger Hauer takes on the world's most vile city. Starts at over-the-top and keeps going up, probably too far for many. TIL: Don't help those who WON'T work, no problem. Don't help those who CAN'T work, your spot in Hell is reserved.
Your daily dose of culture courtesy of The Outing (1987) - "Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing." - August Wilson
